2018.09.15

RAYBRIG NSX-GT Gets Pole! Four NSX-GTs qualify in the Top Five

Round 6 Sportsland Sugo : Qualifying GT500

The official qualifying for the “SUGO GT 300km RACE,” Round 6 of the 2018 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series was held at Sportsland SUGO in Miyagi Prefecture on September 15. In the GT500 class, the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT driven by Naoki Yamamoto and Jenson Button won pole position with a course-record time of 1’10.248. In the GT300 class, the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT driven by Takuto Iguchi and Hideki Yamauchi was fastest in both Q1 and Q2 to take the class pole.

 

 

On this day at Sportsland SUGO the weather turned from cloudy to rain during the morning official practice. But the rain stopped and by the track dried out in the afternoon. When the official qualifying started the track condition was virtually dry.

In the GT300 class Q1 session run before the GT500 class Q1, there was a crash that stopped session, and this delay caused the GT500 Q1 to start 22 minutes behind schedule at 2:52 in the afternoon. Also, because the GT300 class Q1was run in two class sessions, the length of the GT500 class Q1 session was shortened from the usual 15minutes to 10 minutes.
On the fourth lap of that Q1 session, the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD LC500 (Heikki Kovalainen) recorded a time of 1’11.814, which started a string of increasingly fast times by the other cars. The No. 8 ARTA NSX-G T (Takuya Izawa) put in a 1’11.360 lap and then the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Jann Mardenborough) took the top position on the time board with a lap of 1’11.043. Behind this, the No. 6 WAKO'S 4CR LC500 (Felix Rosenqvist) ran a 1’12.984 lap to move into 4th position.
Then, with less than two minutes remaining in the session and the cars beginning their final time attacks, car No. 39 ran off the track at the outside of the SP corner, which cause the session to be stopped.

After car No. 39 was removed from the track, the session was restarted at 3:13 for a remaining 2minutes and 45 seconds. Cars No. 12 and No. 8 that had already recorded times in the 1’11 range remained in their pits, while the others took to the track to gamble on one more time attack.
Among these attacks, the fastest time was recorded by the No. 17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/1’11.021). This was followed by the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Jenson Button) with a time of 1’11.387. Then the top spot changed hands several times as the other cars improved on their previous times. Then, on its next lap, car No. 100 recorded a time of 1’11.321 to move up one spot into third position.
Then the checkered flag came out to end the Q1 session. At the last minute, the No. 24 Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R (Joao Paulo Lima De Oliveira) ran a 1’11.862 lap to move into 8th position to claim the last spot among the Q2 qualifiers and knock out the No. 1 KeePer TOM'S LC500 (Ryo Hirakawa) by a mere 0.017 sec. Also failing to make the cut-off were the No. 36 au TOM'S LC500 (Kazuki Nakajima), the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda) and the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD LC500 that had caused the session to be stopped earlier. This put the cars other than the NSX-GTs in a difficult position.

 

 

The 10-minute GT500 class Q2 session began at 3:44. There was now sunshine on the track and the session started with a completely dry track surface.
On the third lap, the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri) recorded a time of 1’10.352. This beat the former course record (1’10.516 (Kazuya Oshima / No. 6 WAKO'S 4CR RC F / 2016 series Round 4). But immediately after that, the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Daiki Sasaki) came in with a lap of 1’10.286 to beat that record. But the records weren’t finished yet, as Naoki Yamamoto in the No. 100 RAYBRIG NSX-GT ran a lap of 1’10.248 to move to the top position on the time board.
With this, the NSX-GT took its fourth pole position of the season and its tenth overall (excluding the original NSX). For Naoki Yamamoto, it was his second pole position, following the one in Round 3 of the 2017 season at AUTOPOLIS.
Qualifying 2nd was the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R. Behind it, taking places three to five were three more Honda NSX-GT machines: the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT, No. 17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Takashi Kogure) and the No. 16 MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT (Hideki Mutoh). The fastest qualifier among the LEXUS LC500 cars was the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN LC500 (Yuji Kunimoto) in 6th position.

 

 

 

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